Taking it to the streets

Border Grill’s Susan Feniger takes people on a journey through different spices in her new book ‘Street Food,’ which features recipes from all over the globe. (Cover art courtesy of Stephanie Huntwork.)

FOURTH ST ‚Äî What local restaurant Border Grill‚Äôs chef-owner Susan Feniger gleefully refers to as the “the cyclone that is my life” just picked up considerable momentum.
Along with co-authors Kajsa Alger and Liz Lachman, she has just come out with a new book, “Street Food: Irresistibly Crispy, Creamy, Crunchy, Spicy, Sticky, Sweet Recipes,” promotion for which is now in full swing.
She recently launched it at a lunch that was part of Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival‚Äôs signature Celebrity Chef Power Lunch Series at her Hollywood restaurant Street, where she talked up exotic spices, global cooking and traveling the world while serving a generous sampling of Street favorites, custom cocktails and wine. Then she sent guests off with custom spice packets to give the old Hamburger Helper and Shake ‚ÄòN Bake a break and instead try some exotic street food in their own kitchens.
Her first love has always been food, and the search for ever more interesting and challenging foods has helped her discover her second love ‚Äî learning about people and their cultures.
“Nothing pleases me more,” Feniger said, “than to travel in some foreign place, stop at a little stand on the street for some amazing dish I‚Äôve never heard of, and suddenly find myself engaged in a conversation with a complete stranger.”
With cooking and eating as the only shared language on her globe trotting adventures, that interest has helped her forge bonds with rice farmers in Vietnam, women baking flatbread in Turkey and nomad cheesemakers in Mongolia.
Since the book “Street Food” is a culinary spice trail from global kitchens to the author‚Äôs Hollywood restaurant, the introduction gets you going by breaking down the international spice cupboard into the basic flavor types.
Eighty-three recipes follow, classified into chapters labeled Starters and Small Bites, Salads, Vegetables & Grains, Land and Sea, Curry & Tofu & Noodles, Chutneys & Pickles & Other Condiments, Basic Spice Mixes & Pastes, Sweets, Elixirs & Tonics & Lhassis.
A sampling of the tantalizing range is enough to get your mouth watering. It includes artichokes with lemon za‚Äôtar sauce, Thai drunken shrimp with rice noodles, Korean glazed short ribs with sesame and Asian pear and Turkish doughnuts with rose hip jam.
Alongside the recipes are personal travel stories and over a hundred photographs. There are tips on ingredients and readily available substitutions that will make it easy for you to shake up your own cooking repertoire and add some exotic sizzle.
“I believe that in any country, what you see and taste on the street is the best food you‚Äôll find because it‚Äôs usually one family‚Äôs recipe handed down and perfected over generations,” Feniger said. “There aren‚Äôt any frills; there‚Äôs no service; all the focus is on the food.
“Only at a street stand, barely speaking the same language,” Feniger added, “can you start out as a customer and end up invited home to cook with the chef‚Äôs mother or grandmother.”
Her secret? They cook, she learns.
For more information, visit www.streetfoodbook.susanfenigersite.com